Pointed ears, corrugated chins, green skin. Most males are bald and have no facial hair. Females have full head of hair. Most Skrulls are physically malleable, able to alter their shape size, and/or colour at will.

Contents

History

Early Years

The Skrulls are a breed of green-skinned humanoids from the Andromeda Galaxy. They are a fierce warrior race who carved for themselves the oldest interstellar empire in the universe’s history. Skrull science is generally at a higher level than the science of human civilization. The Skrulls were ruled by an Emperor or Empress, who had absolute power.

In the beginning the Skrulls were a peaceful, scientifically inclined race on Skrullos, a planet in the Drax system. Almost a billion years ago the Celestials arrived and experimented on the Skrulls' reptilian ancestors. As the Celestials did with humans, they split the species into three branches: the "normal" branch who were capable of eventually rapidly evolving into Celestial-like beings, the shape-shifting Deviant branch, and the immortal Eternal branch. As in the case with humans, the Deviant and Eternal branches went to war. Unlike the case with humans, however, the Deviant branch wiped out all other Skrulls, thus all modern Skrulls were descendants of the Deviant branch. The Skrulls later split into two more groups, being the modern Skrulls and the Dire Wraiths, a parasitic race that could still shape-shift and had use of magic, but were not as technologically advanced as the Skrulls. Dire Wraith's are analogous to the Skrulls as vampires are to humans.

Their shape-shifting powers aided the Skrulls’ departure into space. When they encountered a new race, they simply transformed themselves to resemble that race. The Skrull empire that resulted from these contacts was based on free trade and mutual cooperation.

The Kree

Kree versus Skrulls War.

Then trouble struck. The Skrulls voyaged to the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds. In the latter cluster they discovered the Kree home-world of Hala. The Kree were in the dawn of their culture; at this point they shared Hala with the plant race, the Cotati. The Skrull decided to favor one of the races with their advanced technology and devised a test to determine which would be the favored race.

The Skrulls created the Blue Area of the Moon and transported bands of Kree and Cotati there. Both groups were left to accomplish what they could. The Skrulls judged the Cotati’s works to be superior. This angered the Kree and led to a vicious attack in which the Kree band slew the Skrull judges and the Cotati. The Kree stole the Skrull’s star-ship and technology. Because of the immense distances involved, decades passed before the Skrulls learned of the Kree’s activities. By this time it was too late. The Kree had become advanced and audacious enough to attack the Skrulls in their home galaxy. During the millennia that followed, the Skrulls developed the vicious streak needed to conduct intergalactic war. Their entire culture was remade in the warrior image as the war began.

100,000 years ago the Skrull capitol was relocated to Tarnax IV, later renamed Throneworld. The Skrull empire was controlled by an Emperor and each of the 978 worlds was controlled by a Governor.

Earth

Skrulls became aware of Earth when they discovered a space warp linking Earth and Throneworld. Later they discovered the Earth possessed an equidistant link to Hala. They saw Earth as a world to conquer but they were content to hold off a full invasion, perhaps afraid the Kree would learn of the plot. Because of their caution, the Skrulls sent only a handful of scout warriors to infiltrate Earth.

The skrull agents revealing how they imitated the FF

Fearing the Fantastic Four would stand in their way of an invasion of Earth, four Skrull agents came to Earth and posed as the team in order to ruin their reputation. The real Fantastic Four were able to expose the Skrull agents and clear their names. The Fantastic Four stole the Skrulls' rocket ship and found their mother-ship in Earth orbit. Posing as the Skrull agents, they tricked the captain into believing that Earth was too dangerous to invade. Reed Richards "volunteered" to stay behind and remove any trace of the Skrulls' presence on Earth. Falling for Richard's deception, the captain called off the invasion. Once back on Earth the Fantastic Four hid the remaining Skrull agents by convincing them to transform into cows. Reed hypnotized them into believing they were real cows. They were left in a field to graze for the rest of their lives.[4]

Galactus

The Skrull throneworld was devoured by Galactus and the Imperial starfleet destroyed by Galactus's herald, Nova (Frankie Raye). With the destruction of a central government, the Skrull Empire collapsed into hundreds of bickering factions. Their galaxy was now filled with Governors declaring themselves “Emperor". The Shi'ar maintained a heavy presence in the former empire as well, constantly dealing with pockets of resistance.

The greatest blow to the Skrulls was the destruction of their shape-shifting powers. This was accomplished by Reed Richards and yet another Governor-turned-Emperor.[7]

There were a small number of Skrull who were the equivalent of mutants. They were outcasts and often shunned or hunted by other Skrulls. One group, Cadre K, was trained by Professor X.

Annihilation Wave and Secret Invasion

The Skrull Empire was the first of the major interstellar empires to be invaded by the forces of Annihilus. The Annihilation Wave's super weapon, the Harvester of Sorrow, destroyed 90% of Skrull planets. In the aftermath the Skrulls unsuccessfully attempted to convince Hulkling to become their new Emperor.

With almost all their planets destroyed and under the leadership of the extremist Queen Veranke, the Skrulls infiltrated Earth for a major assault. Several heroes were replaced by Skrulls. Eventually, Reed Richards was able to pierce through the shape-shifting and all heroes and villains banded together to stop the Skrulls. Unfortunately, the Skrull activated a fail-safe within Wasp, turning her into a biological weapon. Thor had no choice but to "destroy" her. Angered, the humans attacked the Skrulls, killing Veranke and destroying their fleet in orbit in retaliation. All the missing heroes, villains and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were found alive and returned to Earth.

The Skrull Empire was decimated.

Infinity

The Super-Skrull Kl'rt became one of many Warlords seeking to re-unite the divided Skrull territories, eventually growing in power and influence until he became one of the six most powerful Warlords.

When the mysterious Builders began their invasion of the various space empires, the remnants of the Skrull Empire among them, the Warlords united against this common foe. When news of a War Council of various galactic powers reached the Skrulls, Kl'rt was chosen to represent the Skrulls. An alliance was created, with Kl'rt commanding the Skrulls and playing a key role in the council.[8]

The war initially went poorly, but the alliance eventually managed to turn the tide and through a series of key battles, the Builders were defeated and the worlds occupied by them liberated.[9] In order to repay the efforts of the Avengers in the war, and seeking glory and great battle, Kl'rt accompanied Alliance forces to Earth in order to free it from occupation by Thanos. They succeeded in liberating The Peak and killing one of Thanos' lieutenants, Black Dwarf.

After his great victory in the war against the Builders, Kl'rt was crowned Emperor of a reborn Skrull Empire, as the alien race now settled on the planet Tarnax II.[10]

Biology

Reproduction

The Skrulls are oviparous:[1] Skrull females did not give live birth; instead, they lay eggs like their reptilian evolutionary ancestors. Skrull children were known as "hatchlings". Despite their reptilian evolutionary roots, however, Skrull females had mammary glands and nursed their young.

The Skrull species, like the Kree, became genetically frozen in place and was unable to evolve further due to a single member of the Skrull species abusing the power of the Crystal of Ultimate Vision. As punishment, the Crystal "genetically froze their evolution in place".[11]

Hybrids

It was known that Skrulls were capable of producing hybrid offspring with humans and Kree:[1] the Skrull Lyja was able to conceive with the Human Torch, and Hulkling is the son of the Kree military officer Mar-Vell and the Skrull princess Anelle.

Subspecies

A Super Skrull

A normal Skrull can only take on the appearance of their template, not the abilities of that person. Warskrulls, an elite group of Skrulls gifted with the ability to emulate the powers as well as the appearance of their templates.[12] Warskrulls do not naturally have this ability; instead, special encoding technology is used to grant them their powers.

Alternate Realities

There Skrulls of the Counter-Earth pocket dimension were mostly wiped out by Galactus. Among the survivors were Kl'rt who worked with Dr. Doom to experiment on the Silver Surfer. He absorbed some of the Surfer's power cosmic and gained additional powers. He was slain by the Fantastic Four.[13]

Skrulls exist on Earth-712, home to the Squadron Supreme. In this reality the Kree and Skrull races were in conflict with each other until Galactus consumed the Skrull home-world. One survivor, Skymax, sought out survivors, bringing him to Earth where he rescued Joe Ledger and endowed him with the Power Prism. Both Ledger and Skymax joined the Squadron Supreme. Skymax maintained and off-and-on membership with the organization.

History diverged during the Kree-Skrull War when Ronan the Accuser slayed Rick Jones. At that time Kree hero Captain Marvel was a prisoner of the Skrulls and was being forced to build an Omni-Wave Projector. Completing his task he used it to attempt to contact Rick and learned that his friend was dead. Marvel, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver battled the Skrull forces. Their leader Dorrek VII released the Super Skrull and sent him to destroy Captain Marvel. When Dorrek's daughter Anelle begged her father to stop the fighting he slapped her. Anelle then left and sided with the heroes. In the final battle, Mar-Vell slayed the Super-Skrull, while Dorrek VII was killed in battle against rebel forces against his rule. Anelle succeeded Dorrek as leader of the Skrulls and ordered them to stand down all hostilities. She then began working with Captain Marvel, who had just been appointed ruler of the Kree by the Supreme Intelligence to forge everlasting peace between their two races[15].

In this reality the Skrulls posed as the "S People" and sent out boxes that emitted cosmic rays. They promised that the boxes would fulfill the receiver's wildest fantasies, however in reality they were supposed to turn humans into mindless slaves. One such box was sent to the bullpen at Marvel Comics and they were mutated and banded together as the Fantastic Four. Ultimately the Fantastic Four and Namor learned the truth and foiled the Skrull plot.[17]

In this reality, Skrull technology allowed all humans to become "Capes" or super-humans. In a sinister plot, the Skrulls returned and integrated the world's powers into their "Super-Skrull" armor. The Skrulls then eliminated all of the humans, including three members of the Fantastic Four. The only remaining human was the non-powered Ben Grimm who pummeled the now non-powered Skrull invader.[18]

In this reality the Skrulls attempted to invade the Earth and battled that realities Fantastic Four, a version of the team that has vastly different powers than most other realities. Although the Skrulls were defeated the details surrounding this encounter remains unrecorded.

In this reality, the Skrulls attempted to sabotage the American space program circa the 1950's by having one of their own disguise himself as Vice-President Richard Nixon. This plot was foiled thanks to the time travelling Immortus who revealed the plot. Immortus sought to destroy any reality in which the human race would travel to the stars and used the Forever Crystal to eliminate Earth-9904 from existence.

On Earth-9997, the Skrulls were one of many alien races manipulated by the Celestials as part of their complex reproduction plans. The Skrulls had reached the third tier of mutation when they had first encounter the Kree race. The once peaceful Skrulls were "willed" to be brutal enemies by the Kree who were angered at the losing a contest with the Cotati, leading to the Kree/Skrull War.

The Shaper of Worlds was also a member of the Skrull race who was transformed into a Cosmic Cube and later regained his sentience, hence his Skrull like face. Also in this reality Sui-San, wife of Mentor was also a Skrull in disguise, and as such both her children Thanos and Starfox are both part Skrull.

Earth-15797 was a universe devoid of super-humans on the planet Earth, making the planet ideal for Skrull conquest. When the Skrulls began the initial stages of their invasion of Earth on Christmas Eve, they found unlikely opposition from a homeless man named Jesse who had been endowed with the power of Nova. Jesse sacrificed his life to stop the Skrull invasion, blowing up their ship and killing all the Skrulls aboard.[20]

When an ancient spacecraft is found deep in the Louisiana Bayou, the Avengers and Fantastic Four were brought in to investigate. Taking the ship back to Avengers Tower the two groups open it to discover a Kree scouting party who had been sent to earth centuries ago to await battle with the Skrulls[21].

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Shape-shifting: Skrulls are able to alter their forms into that of anything they can imagine, be it organic or inorganic. It must, however, be solid. They can assume the form of someone but not their powers. When they imitate an inorganic object, they take on it's appearance, but not it's properties. They can also use their abilities to grow extra limbs. They have no apparent size limit, as they they been seen to assume the form of a common housefly, and shapes many times larger than their normal selves.

Elasticity, Plasticity, Elongation: Their shape-shifting abilities allow them to alter their bodies in much the same way as Mr. Fantastic, so that they can stretch to great lengths, or form other shapes with their bodies, such as balls, parachutes, or anything else.

Lyja using her powers to form a parachute

Size Alteration: They are also capable of altering their size independently of altering their form, allowing them to grow or shrink while maintaining their current form

Flight: They are able to fly by shape-shifting a pair of wings onto their back, or turning their arms into wings.

Skrulls using their shape-shifting to fly

Mimicry: Skrulls are cunning spies due to their ability to mimic sounds and voices. This is mainly used in conjunction with the shapes they shift into.

Abilities

Weapon Formation: Skrulls are able to use their shapeshifting abilities to form weapons with parts of their bodies. For instance, they can shape their arms into blades or clubs including guns. This ability makes them dangerous hand-to-hand combatants.

Average Strength level

Unknown.

Weaknesses

None known.

Habitat

Miscellaneous

Type of Government: Totalitarian Monarchy (succession disrupted by destruction of Tarnax IV, death of surviving royal family members, and ensuring civil wars, re-instated with the crowning of the new Emperor, Kl'rt I)Level of Technology: Superior to Earth: Advanced warp-drive star-ships, robots, cyborg, and cybernetic technology, and energy weaponry.Cultural Traits: Warriors

Jaketch - An apprentice executioner who shot Reed, Sue, and the Thing with an accelerated-aging ray. He detests Hagar and yearns for the day he can execute him.

Raksor - This Skrull officer may be the most important Skrull in recent history. He was originally sent to observe the Shi’ar-ordered trial-by-combat of Jean Grey/Phoenix and the X-Men. His interference with the trial lead to a fight with the Kree observer, Bel-Dann. That fight lasted for months, long after the Shi’ar had departed and Attilan arrived. The Watcher told Empress R’Klll and the Kree Supreme Intelligence of their long duel. This lead to the rulers signing an agreement whereby the the combatants were now representing their races. The winner would also determine the final victor in the Kree- Skrull War. The combat continued and eventually involved the Inhumans and the FF. Reed concocted a plan whereby Raksorr and Bel-Dann had to cooperate to defeat the Fantastic Four and Inhumans. After their victory, the Watcher declared the contest a draw. The Kree and Skrull races were declared equals and the long war was finally over.

R'Klll - A Skrull Empress. She avenged her father by assassinating her husband, the Emperor Dorrek. Her reign following Dorrek's death was marked by several attempts at peace-the end of the war against Xandar and the treaty ending the Kree war-and the destruction of Home-world. She died along with several billion of her people.

Zenrao - After Galactus' and Nova’s destruction of Throneworld, Zendrao found himself Commander of the largest remaining Skrull fleet. He is concerned with reforming the Skrull Empire. However, he does not want to be the titular head of it, but rather be the power behind the throne. He views the current Skrull civil war for supremacy as a useless waste of time; rather than join any side he uses his fleet to keep the combatants away from areas he is protecting.

Khn'nr - A Skrull who posed as the original Captain Marvel. He turned against the other Skrulls during the Secret Invasion.

Pagon - A Skrull who posed as Elektra after Siri's demise. Killed by Echo as part of a suicide mission.

Pitt'o Nili - A Skrull who posed as the Captain America (and brainwashed to be him) who came from a downed ship in the Savage Land. Killed by Shanna the She-Devil after being hit by a poisonous dart that has a huge effect on Skrulls.

Rl'nnd - Son of Rm'twr. Rl'nnd was an undercover X-Skrull agent participating in the Secret Invasion. He displayed the combined powers of several X-Men. Killed by Ms. Marvel.

Planets

Kral IV - The highly-unusual Kral system is populated by Skrulls fascinated with the culture of 1930s Earth and who have attempted to duplicate that time period. Skrull inhabitants of Kral maintain human rather than Skrull form.

The idea that Skrull evolution is frozen in place is contradicted by numerous comics. Although Celestial genetic experimentation on the Skrulls may not have been as successful as Celestial experimentation on humans, the Celestial experiments were still not failures. The Kree were depicted in Operation: Galactic Storm as a species which could no longer evolve, in contrast to the humans, Shi'ar, and Skrulls. In Maximum Security, the Skrulls were shown to have a mutant class, known as K-Class Deviants. Indeed, the superhero group Cadre K consists entirely of mutant Skrulls.

Trivia

Dire Wraiths are believed to be an offshoot of the Skrulls. However, the races do not appear to be friendly with each other, .

↑in his first appearance; his name is not given. In fact, he is not named as "Dorrek" until Fantastic Four #205, 16 years after his first appearance, and he is not clarified as "Dorrek VII" until Marvel: The Lost Generation #11, 37 years after his first appearance. This has led to some confusion because of the practice among some comic book fans of using Roman numerals, based on order of appearance, to distinguish between different characters with the same name: some comic book fans therefore refer to Dorrek VII as Dorrek I and the Dorrek who reigned at the beginning of the Kree-Skrull War as Dorrek II.